31.8.13

Simple Healthy Salsa Recipe (Yes, You Can Can!)

by Robin

We've been making our own salsa for more than 12 years now. It's our late summer tradition. We've only missed doing this 2 years.

The first lost year was when we had a newborn with colic who kept us (literally!) on our toes for 3 months straight. (He'd cry pretty much constantly unless we held him upright and danced on our tiptoes. That left no energy for anything else, let alone salsa-making.)

The second salsa-less year was when we lived away from home while people tore off our roof and added a second storey. Just as the tomatoes were ripening we were moving back home and getting settled in again (not to mention finishing a lot of the work ourselves to save money).

Those stories have nothing to do with salsa. Sorry 'bout that.We've been making this very same recipe, with only slight modifications, for these past dozen years. This salsa was our second stab at teaching ourselves the art of canning. (Our first try was corn relish. It was tasty but not nearly as useful as salsa. I can name dozens of great recipes that include salsa - in fact, we've shared quite a few simple, healthy Mexican recipes here. Corn relish? Not so much.)

This salsa is fabulous! Yes, we are completely immodest about it. It's tastier and cheaper than store bought. Yesterday we made 17 pint jars. Our total cost for ingredients (including lids) was $20.74. That's only $1.22 a jar!It's also healthier than store-bought. It has no added salt, just the little bit in the tomato paste.

One of my favourite food blogs, Simple Bites has a good basic Canning 101. If you aren't sure that you will do it again, borrow the basic equipment from a friend or family member that cans. We borrowed our equipment the first couple times, and we quickly realized we wanted to invest in our own.

Canning is not nearly so hard as it seems. It's just simple steps using simple equipment. Give it a try.